What Is a Fret?

A fret is one of the thin metal strips embedded across the guitar's neck. Pressing a string down just behind a fret shortens the string's vibrating length, and each fret raises the pitch by exactly one half step. "Play the 5th fret" means press the string in the space just behind the 5th metal strip.

Frets vs. fret spaces

Guitarists use "fret" loosely to mean both the metal strip and the space behind it where your finger actually goes. When a chord chart or teacher says "3rd fret," they mean the space between the 2nd and 3rd metal strips — press there, and the string vibrates from the 3rd strip to the bridge.

Why frets matter for finding notes

Because every fret is one half step, the fretboard is a ruler: move up one fret and any note becomes its sharp, move down one fret and it becomes its flat. Start from an open string and count frets, and you can name any note. That's the entire basis of fretboard memorization — and it's why the dots on the neck at frets 3, 5, 7, 9, and 12 work as landmarks.

At the 12th fret, you've stacked twelve half steps — a full octave — so the note names start over.

Related terms

• Open string — the note a string plays with no fret pressed
• Half steps and whole steps — the distances frets measure
• Standard tuning — the starting note of each string